Interactive war movie, not deep strategy game.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Epic tale, interesting story, good combination of graphics, sound, and rumble effects.

Cons: Weak strategy, limited options, battles that can last for two hours.

The Bottom Line: 
People seeking a strong strategy game for the PS2 should move on, while those looking for an interesting, pretty interactive samurai war movie may love the game.

Author's Review
Those expecting a strategy game will be disappointed. That’s the most important thing going into Kessen.

Kessen was one of the games I felt I had to get when I got my PS2. As a student of both Japanese history and culture and medieval warfare in general, it seemed natural to want to get a game based around the events of one of the greatest battles in history, Sekigahara. Despite some poor reviews, I made sure Kessen was the first game I picked up and decided to go into it with an open mind. I figured at least I could watch one of my favorite Tokugawa generals, Ii Naomasa, charge into battle with his crimson warriors behind him.

At best, Kessen is a very simple entry-level strategy game. Oh, there are a good number of statistics for each of the leaders and the troops under his control, and a nice selection of pre-battle options, but most of the former can be ignored without consequence and most of the latter can be left on its default settings. After all, it’s likely that you won’t need to ever change, as the game is very easy to win, even after you beat it from both sides and get to raise the difficulty levels. In battle, you have the option to move each of your troops, have them target an opposing force, or use a special ability. Little globs representing men scoot across the battlefield towards each other, breaking up a little when engaged in combat. Special abilities are basically extraordinary maneuvers, such as firing a large volley of arrows, a charge, a raid, or a devastating round of cannon fire. During the special ability uses, or whenever you wish to zoom in, you can see a small part of the battle in full 3-D, each soldier is modeled and animated fairly realistically. Most of the game will be watching these little snippets of animation and watching the resulting number changes to casualties and morale. The AI doesn’t employ any truly intelligent tactical maneuvering, so most of the time you can readily win by drawing a unit or two of his out into the open and surrounding them. In truth, many battles in more complex games, such as Shogun for the PC, come down to similar simple strategies, but the lack of options to do much else on a tactical level makes Kessen seem more shallow.

Hopefully I’ve scared away anyone who wanted Kessen solely to have a grand strategy game on the PS2. With what seems to be a scathing paragraph out of the way, I will fully admit that I love this game. Between the previews I saw and the reviews I had read, I knew that the strategy element was lacking. I still wanted to see samurai armies fighting in close-up, though. And I got exactly that.

Kessen is less a strategy game and more an epic interactive war movie. Kou Shibusawa, the producer, admits in the game’s intro that it was his dream to create a controllable movie and that this is the result of that dream. Imagine a video game version of, say, the samurai movie Heaven&Earth, or the battle scenes from Braveheart. You don’t play Kessen to be tactically challenged, but to watch cavalry plow into footmen, cannon tearing through both men and horse, and Honda Tadakatsu leaping from his horse to swat down ashigaru with his Tonbogiri. The action sweeps by you in short cut scenes that use the in-game engine, resulting in beautiful action scenes with an epic feel. Even though you will probably see most of these scenes by the third battle, you won’t mind seeing most of them again and again (and the results do change slightly, depending on the statistical outcome, most notably when two opposing leaders decided to duel it out like in their ancestors did centuries before). The standard soldiers wear semi-accurate outfits, while the leaders wear exaggerated variations on their helmets and armor, making them look like something out of an anime film or the old Shogun Warriors. Given the epic scale, however, the helmets, with their giant horns and other ornaments, all seem perfect. The models for both men and horse are well done and although the foot soldiers in a squad are all similar looking, there are variations in their skins.

The main commanders on both sides have their own specialized lines, while minor leaders are a bit more generic, and most of the generals have their own personalities. You’ll learn to love Honda and Ii Naomasa for their almost fanatical loyalty and have to find the patience to deal with self-serving, yet powerful leaders like Fukushima Masanori. Personalities and loyalties play an important part, for you can often try to persuade enemy leaders to either stay out of fights or to defect to your side (historically, Tokugawa’s victory as Sekigahara was partially due to this more diplomatic method). While it’s doubtful a battle in Kessen will hinge on such, there is still some tension in some engagements as leaders with huge armies sit on the edge of the battlefield weighing who they’ll side with. More important defectors will even have special cut-scenes as they debate with their lieutenants over their defections. Tokugawa’s faction seems to be more unified than Ishida’s (which is accurate) and you’ll be finding yourself struggling with generals who don’t want to do what you want them to often in the latter’s campaign (in one battle, Mori Hide had decided he was going to sit and watch the battle, refusing my orders, then decided to attack Tokugawa Ieyasu on his own once a corridor was opened. Kobayakawa, who sounds like a wimpier Cobra Commander from the old G.I.Joe TV show (if such a thing is possible), is one general who will annoy the lord he sides with (historically, it was eventually Tokugawa) with his indecisiveness and cowardice. You almost hope the enemy will entice him to defect, just to be rid of him.

The story is an epic tale, told from both sides, depending on which side you play. Initially, you can only play from Tokugawa’s point of view, which is his campaign of consolidation, from Sekigahara to his final campaign against the remnants of the Toyotomi family. Winning the battles puts you on a fairly historical path, but losses will take you down an interesting ‘what if?’ path, as does any number of victories as Ishida. The game dramatizes the events of the period, going into the backgrounds of a number of the leaders on both sides, showing both their histories and their relationships with the other powerful lords of the period. In some ways, Kessen could be a good piece of edutainment, as the excitement and drama presented could entice people to read more about the people and events of the era. The game even includes an online mini-encyclopedia of all the major participants. Personal grudges, and subtle plights, such as the fate of Christians and foreigners add to the entertaining tale. Ninja, female platoons, and excessive use of cannons add a little mythical touch to the tale without really detracting too much.

Although somewhat lackluster on the main display, the graphics in the close-up scenes are good and convey the action well. You only get to see one unit at a time, but each soldier is nicely rendered, looking and behaving as you’d expect. Koei avoided making the soldiers look like robots by having a few guys who move out of synch with the unit, firing a second or two before or after the main volley, for example. The camera work for the cut scenes is done well, providing nice angles for the carnage. Explosions and smoke from rifles and cannons look good and men go down realistically, though without the gore of blood or severed limbs. Main leaders are distinguishable not only by their dramatic armor, but also their facial features and serve their purpose in not only identifying them, but also identifying with them.

The sound is also good. Although not varying too much, the classical music soundtrack is dynamic and fits the mood and action of the moment in subtle ways. It’s not outstanding, but it doesn’t dominate either. The sound effects, from the rumble of cannons to the sound of arrows flying by in mid-air to the sound of three rows of riflemen opening up in a volley all sound as they should and are further enhanced by the dual shock controller, which gives off very realistic vibrations, depending on the event. The voice acting is generally good enough for a game of this quality, though I wish there had been an option to have the original Japanese dialogue with subtitles, as some of the voices are lacking. It's not so much poor acting as choice in voices. It took awhile for me to accept Cobra Commander as one of my generals (actually, now that I think about it, Kobayakawa's voice is very fitting...) or having my favorite historical general sound like South Park's Officer Barbrady. Despite the odd voice choices, most of the actors do try to sound as if they were pivotal Japanese warlords and their work helps tell the story.

Is Kessen worth getting a PS2 for? No (in fact, I haven’t seen a PS2 game yet that would sell the machine on its own). On the level of watching a story that you have some influence over, it is actually quite fun. It should probably be a rental for some, for although each battle can take up to two hours to beat, there’s only six battles per side (plus a few ‘what if?’ battles), so the game doesn’t have much of a life, especially considering how easy it is to win. But, if you’re a big fan of epic war films and samurai (especially the events that brought about the end of the Sengoku Jidai period), and don’t expect much else than a visually appealing interactive movie, it’s very enjoyable and well worth the time.